Directors dealings: Babcock chief, chairman buy on weakness
Babcock's boss and chairman both picked up shares in the company they lead at the start of the week.
Babcock International Group
504.50p
16:45 18/04/24
FTSE 100
7,877.05
17:14 18/04/24
FTSE 350
4,334.00
17:14 18/04/24
FTSE All-Share
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16:54 18/04/24
Support Services
10,449.40
17:14 18/04/24
Earlier on Monday, it emerged that Westminster would compensate America's Bechtel and Energy Solutions with nearly £100.0m for a flawed nuclear cleanup contract which was terminated after only five years.
The two US firms had sued against the decision to grant a contract to clean-up 12 sites to Babcock and Fluor.
For its part, Babcock agreed to bring its Magnox nuclear decomissioning contract to a close two years ahead of time, in calendar year 2019, and move to a new contract arrangement.
That would wipe out roughly £800.0m from the company's order book; however, analysts at ShoreCap thought it highly likely the firm would be able to successfully bid for a large share of the future work which would result.
Nevertheless, the news sent shares in Babcock lower by 4.31% to 877.0p.
Reacting to the announcement, company boss Archie Bethel made off with two batches of shares, of 5,672 and 1,165 each one, which were purchased at 881p and 884p, respectively, for a total consideration of £60,320.05.
In parallel, his wife bought another 3,704 shares, also at 884p, for a total sum of £32,726. Later that same day, she stepped in again, purchasing another 2,377 shares at 883p for £20,988.91.
Chairman Mike Turner also waded in as well, buying a further 10,000 shares at 888p, paying £88,750 in the process.
On 9 January, analysts at Deutsche Bank downgraded the company's stock to 'Hold', telling clients they did not see "enough upside" at the time.
"The stock is not expensive, leaving room for some price recovery on e.g. contract news, but in our view investors will need to see repeated strong reporting for a material & sustainable re-rating. While cash generation has been good, certain drags mean the valuation on cash metrics looks less attractive than on earnings multiples. Organic growth should improve next year, however we remain cautious on UK outsourcing as a whole and are not prepared to assume a return to previously seen growth levels," Deutsche's analysts said.
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